I am over $100,000 in private loan debt from subprime loans in 2004-2008 (originally Sallie Mae). I did not qualify for the cancellation because i didn’t default on my loans. sigh During the pandemic i did a deep dive, on my loans. I looked into the practices that got them sued in the first place and found LOTS of things. Misallocated payments, payments not accounted for ( i have bank statements showing they took the money but never applied to my loans), I found 11 instances (so far ) where they charged me a different interest rate than what is shown on statements mailed to me, they also are constantly changing how payments are applied from 2013!!! They changed how payments were allocated 3x this year alone! I have multiple printouts from this year that shows that I was charged a late fee in Jan, in may it was gone and as of yesterday, it was reapplied all from 2013!!! I don’t understand how this is legal! I can’t afford a lawyer and those I’ve contacted wouldn’t help because the amount of work it would take for them would cost me thousands in man hours (I can’t even count how many hours I’ve spent doing this!) I have so much proof of things they’ve done that should qualify me for cancellation! I don’t know where to turn for help because I can’t afford it. If anyone here could give me advice or has experienced these issues maybe we can team up!
Navient told me I did default, but I did not qualify for cancellation. Loan was originally sallie mae same time has yours, no lawyer will take my case either
Navient is Evil! I was also with Sallie Mae and was told my loans didn’t qualify for forgiveness or the moratorium because they were private. Federally garaunteed but private loans. I had to consolidate with Mohella and reapply for forgiveness for working full time at a nonprofit.
I’ve had similar problems with Navient, and now their “replacement” Aidvantage (same operation under a different name). I’ll outline some steps I had success with, but disclaimer, I’m not a lawyer or expert, just someone who’s lost patience with the Navient runaround and tried everything I could think of.
They routinely give inconsistent information; just last month, I was sent four different documents each stating a different amount for my monthly payment. I’ve even had a Navient supervisor admit she was searching the Dept. of Education webpage because Navient themselves didn’t have documentation on the issue I asked about (how annual IDR plan amounts should be adjusted when one of the loans under the IDR plan is paid off early).
CFPB complaints are generally minimally helpful; typically you just get a response weeks later that they reached out to the servicer and the servicer claims they didn’t do anything wrong. But at least it lets the servicer know you’re willing to follow up with outside channels. And the only student loan lawyer who would even respond wanted $300/hr just to call Navient and ask what the payment amount should be, which I’d already done. Ombudsman or attorney generals offices could be another resource if you’re really stuck, but I can’t speak from experience on these.
My best advice is to get to know a little about the regulations that govern lending. I’ve been working for financial institutions for the last few years, and our required training taught me a lot I didn’t know about what lenders are required to do when servicing your loans.
The Truth in Lending Act (TILA)/Reg Z guidelines dictate what information lenders have to provide about a loan before you accept it, and also require the lender to give you accurate and timely info about your loan once it’s in servicing. UDAAP (Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices) is a little more nebulous; it covers overtly unfair practices like redlining, but also a broad spectrum of other practices that could be considered harmful to the borrower. I’d suggest reading up on the basics (CFPB does have some info on these).
Keep all documentation from servicers, including transcripts from help chats (copy/paste these into a doc to save; they won’t email them to you after). Depending on where you live, if you have the technology to record calls, you may be legally entitled to record customer service calls because of something called “one party consent,” where if the servicer says the call may be recorded for quality and training purposes, that constitutes their consent to the call being recorded as well as your consent. But some states require two party consent (both parties must affirmatively consent, and Navient/Aidvantage will refuse). Navient/Aidvantage are headquartered in Pennsylvania, which was a one-party state last I checked, so if you’re also located in a one-party state (eg Minnesota), you’re good to record. You can ask if they consent and they will likely tell you it’s not allowed, but that’s a lie, so ask for a supervisor and tell them you’re calling from a one-party consent state. Keep insisting.
Call repeatedly. It’s exhausting, I know, but Navient keeps a log of when you call and what about, and occasionally, you’ll get an agent who sees that you’ve called every week for two months and they’ll immediately refer you to a supervisor. That was how I got an issue cleared where Navient literally forgot to process my annual IDR recertification paperwork despite receiving it on time, increased my payment because the IDR had expired, didn’t update my autopay amount to reflect the increase, and charged me massive late fees on the lot - and then when they placed my loans into an administrative forbearance to clear up their mistake, tried to capitalize my interest 
Keep your own records, too. I keep a spreadsheet that tracks all my loans so I can check my projections and calculations against the interest and amounts Navient/Aidvantage charge.
If you can demonstrate a discrepancy and back it up with documentation, you’re halfway there. Name-dropping Reg Z/TILA or UDAAP depending on which covers your scenario often helps escalate your case or get you to a supervisor.
There’s not a lot you can do besides make it costlier for these folks to operate. But getting to know the basics of key lending laws can really help for a few reasons.
- If you know the law, your request presents a more likely threat of a lawsuit, which can create a significant paperwork challenge for servicers (they’re legally required to handle and preserve/maintain information that’s the subject of a credible threat of a lawsuit differently than other paperwork in case that information could be used as evidence in the case).
- Servicers likely know that giving you inaccurate monthly statements, not applying your payments as described, or charging you the wrong interest is illegal, and they’re counting on you not being able to prove it. But if you can prove it, that could be the basis for a class action suit (when there are enough folks with enough documentation to be worth lawyers’ time - and you can ask around to see if any student loan lawyers are currently putting together class action suits for the kind of issue you’re experiencing) and then there are fines, loss of reputation, and sometimes structural remedies like losing a charter or having restrictions placed on the max dollar amount of business they can do or the ability to complete mergers. Navient is currently in settlement for a suit like this, and it happened to Wells Fargo too.
Because of those 2 risks, servicers may be more likely to work to clear up an issue for you if they think you’re informed enough and persistent enough to take action on it.
Hope that helps a bit. Keep up the pressure, and best of luck!